over, made us spring on deck. A squall had
struck her. I did not expect to see her recover herself. Everything
was flying away; yards were cracking, the sails in shreds fluttering in
the gale; the masts were bending as if about to go over the side; blocks
were falling from aloft; ropes slashing and whipping furiously; the
water was rushing in through the lee scuppers half up the deck, and
nearly drowning the unfortunate Frenchmen sitting there, who were
shrieking out in dismay, believing that their last moments had come.
Ned Bambrick sprang aft and put up the helm: the after canvas was
chiefly off her; she had gathered way, and now answering her helm, she
flew before it. Never had I been in such a scene of confusion,
increased by the roaring of the wind, the shrieks of the prisoners, the
rattling of the blocks and ropes, the cracking of spars, and the loud
slush of the water as it rushed about the deck. What had become of Grey
I could not tell. It was too dark now to distinguish anyone. I called:
he did not answer. A horrid feeling seized me. He must have been
knocked overboard. I called again in despair. At that moment it would
have been a matter of indifference to me if the Frenchmen had risen and
taken the vessel from us. A faint voice answered me. It was that of
Toby Bluff. "He was there, sir, but just now."

I had been standing on the weather side. I slid down to leeward, for I
saw some one there. I grasped hold of the person, and hauled him up.
It was Grey. When the vessel was first struck, he had been knocked over
by the tiller, which he must have just taken, believing that there was
to be but a slight breeze. He had been half stunned and half drowned.
He speedily, however, to my great joy, recovered. I now mustered all
hands, most of whom had been sent sprawling in among the Frenchmen, who
kicked and bit at them, they declared, but which Grey and I did not
believe to be the fact. We now set to work to get the ship to rights.
We squared yards as well as we could, furled the remnant of the canvas,
and set a close-reefed fore-topsail, under which the little vessel ran
on very comfortably. Our chief concern was, that we were, as we
thought, running away from the frigate. None of us felt disposed to go
to sleep again, so we kept a bright look-out, not knowing whether we
might not be hurrying directly on to a coral reef, or another island.
The wind, however, soon began to go down, and I was propos